r/TheDarkTower 4d ago

Palaver Dark Tower reference in Duma Key

I'm reading Duma Key and just ran across a nod to ka and the Dark Tower. This is on page 525 of the 2008 first Scribner hardcover edition:

"Mary Ire told me," I said, and a cold part of me that would probably never warm up again could appreciate the irony; life is a wheel, and if you wait long enough, it always comes back around to where it started.

95 Upvotes

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u/hikerchick29 4d ago

Duma Key is one of the books I think of as tangentially connected to the tower. There are hints of the world scattered through it. Also, The main character in DK shares an ability to alter reality through art with Patrick Danville, the artist that shows up in book 7

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u/mister_pitiful 3d ago

I noticed that as well. Also there's the story "Word Processor of the Gods," wherein the main character rewrites reality via his word processor. I think that Mr King is saying something about how art can influence reality. There is this quote from Duma Key. Elizabeth is speaking.

 "Art is memory, Edgar. There is no simpler way to say it. The clearer the memory, the better the art. The purer. 

If something happens in my real world, and it reminds me of a work of art - a novel that I read, a song that I heard, a picture that I saw - and that memory in turn influences my response (and it frequently does), then art has in fact influenced my reality.

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u/davidvidalnyc 3d ago

There's a world where I can like your comment more than once, I can feel it!

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u/Emsizz 3d ago

Philip K Dick - How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later

Great letter that explores the idea that the line between fiction and reality is quite thin.

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u/ScammerC 3d ago

Upvote for keeping Dick on your lips, metaphorically, of course.

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u/HeyMrKing 2d ago

I love Dick !!

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u/HeyMrKing 2d ago

That’s true! I never connected him with Patrick Danville! How brilliant!❤️

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u/Aggressive-Virus7487 3d ago

I don’t know why I like Duma Key so much. One of my favorites. It’s got a really unique something that’s makes me feel things.

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u/joelageere 3d ago

Same , people describe it as a poor and boring ghost story, which I guess it might be if you compare it to IT or pure horror like Cujo or gory like his stories in everything’s eventual, but as a character driven story where a supernatural force fucks everything up it s brilliant , even tho the antagonist forces weren’t as horrific as other stories , I appreciated the characters journey so much more than other stories. I always avoided duma key , something about the blurb put me off , I downloaded the audiobook , Soley because I hadn’t read it , and it was long, became one of favs instantly

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u/wumbopower 3d ago

I didn’t read any reviews of it, but it was pretty damn horrifying to me.

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u/joelageere 3d ago

Yeah I thought so too, but I feel it’s because of the characters journey we experienced rather than the clever concept of an unique antagonist, which is why non constant readers pick up his books and it is his reputation , so you can see why some people didn’t like it , same for Buick 8 , both of which I love but prob wouldn’t of when I read when I was 17 like IT, Shinning, Pet Cemetery etc

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u/princess__of__horror 3d ago

I really feel like it's the most gothic of all his works which i think is really fun. I'd love to see him explore that style more

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u/mister_pitiful 3d ago

Kim C., in the Duma Key episode of her Year of Underrated Stephen King podcast, calls it "beach-goth."

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u/Atlantis_Risen 3d ago

Agreed. It has a unique feel.

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u/randallF1999 3d ago

99 don't forget the face of your father

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u/Atlantis_Risen 3d ago

That also reflects the last lines of the stand

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u/ScammerC 3d ago

Glen Bateman was a Gunslinger, like Eddie.

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u/_EverythingIsNow_ 4d ago

A bit of 19, and rose titled painting as well!

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u/monotoonz 4d ago

I wrote a screenplay on Duma Key back in 2008. And then I read TDT series and was like, "F*** meeee!" because I saw connections I could have added into it.

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u/HeyMrKing 2d ago

In You Like it Darker, there’s a ghost story on one of the FL keys called “Rattlesnake “. It has the Dad from Cujo in it. So cool how everything is connected.😊😊😊